E-X-I-T

Watching a movie alone inside a real, huge, dark movie theater is something that I intend to do someday. I don’t know, it seems so simple. Well apart from the usual dangers of doing such a thing, which are pretty much the same dangers you face outside everyday, everytime, buying the tickets and sitting inside a cold, darkened room with plenty of people whose eyes are all fixed in one direction shouldn’t be too complicated, right? Yeah, I figured as much. Yet I still have apprehensions.Evenwhen I have company, I still anticipate trouble and look every nowand then in the direction of the Exit Sign.

You see, a few years ago, I disregarded warnings of bomb threats on Manila malls and went ahead to meet a friend to watch American Beauty at the Megamall. I’ll never forget that movie. I never got to finish it because a few minutes before it was all over, the ground shook as if there had been an earthquake, and when I heard the sound of something exploding I know at once what it was. I remember that I was jolted from my seat, looked at my friend, stood up, and was frozen for a bit while I watch the other people start to go out of the theater, slowly at first then with frenzied haste when the thing began to sink in. Everything was blurred from then; I didn’t even know how we managed to find the exit; we just went with the flow of people, everyone telling each other to keep calm to avoid a stampede. I was too scared to watch a movie for a few  months after that. Even now, I always keep an eye on the Exit Signs everytime I am inside a moviehouse. Well, I’m generally afraid of the dark actually, but that is one major factor why this “goal” is going to be a hard one for me to accomplish.

Despite my paranoia, though, the luminous EXIT SIGNS inside theaters do calm me in a way. And I’m sure they have emergency lighting there so no worries about being kept in the dark in case of power failure. I still may need to prep myself, though, despite these self-assurances. But I’ll go through it, because I can always go out anyway. There are times when I don’t chastise myself for being a quitter (more on this later).

Oral EDTA Chelation

Totally not in keeping with my promise to self that I’ll try to have better sleeping habits, after all that talk about health and high blood pressure, clogged arteries, and oral chelation, I’m now still up at 2.30 am; eating a piece of apple I found in the refrigerator, which houses nothing else but that and a bottle of water; listening to Sara Bareilles; and thinking about the badminton game tomorrow. I’m also thinking about breakfast, which depending on what time I’ll wake up, will most probably be a cup of coffee and a bowl of oatmeal. I hate the taste of that. Seriously. But it’s so easy to prepare and the health benefits are well published, so I’m trying to substitute it for my usual fastfood breakfast. A friend and I have been talking about being hypochondriac, me regarding being hypertensive and she regarding being diabetic (and still another friend ran to a clinic yesterday out of fear of urinary tract infection) that eating well would seem to be the wisest thing to do. And yet when the three of us go to the office cafeteria and each order our sizzling plates of liempo, adobo, or porkchop, we’ll all agree that there’s no way we can stay away from all these fatty foods all at once. Moderation is the key, although sometimes that can also get hard. Well, wholegrain oats are supposed to flush out toxins and help unclog arteries, a more natural method than chelation therapy, so I’m psyching myself about making it a regular part of my diet. Better start early before more drastic measures, such as oral EDTA chelation, become necessary.